Ernest

Review from Strummer magazine. 8th March. ( www.strummermag.com)
A cold wet Manchester night. Top class footie (with handbags) on the telly and a tuesday night to boot. To say I was expecting a poor turnout would be an understatement. Sometimes you get great understated nights of bliss and sometimes you witness something truly remarkable. This was one such night and a better turnout (40-50) than previously. Ernest from Hull - an uninspiring name and an uninspiring town (sorry for that but I only really remember the Housemartins) - but what an awesome band. I haven't seen anything this good since I saw Joy Division for the first time in 1979. Ernest don't have a style they create a style THEY ARE A STYLE and it's truly unique. Yes you can probably pinpoint one or two bands as reference points but they all hit every staccato note, change and sequence with perfection. It's soaring, quirky, interesting - there just aren't enough superlatives to describe them. Please come back and do another show for us soon.
This was a night to remember. I'd have paid 30 for a ticket and walked it all the way from Blackpool to see such quality and it was all bloody free.
You MUST check out the above before you really do have to pay that much to see them. - www.strummermag.com

The Late Room is dark, and in fact a little seedy. Ernest (mean what they say) funk it up with a generous portion of synth glow on the side An initial aural assault flows effortlessly into a crunching guitar salvo, the likes of which always puts a smile on my face - these guys are tight! frontman Terry puts me in mind of Weller circa The Jam, but the music is unlike anything I’ve heard before. These guys are playing around with more genres than I could shake a stick at, and they’re making it look effortless. Rock guitar, Funk bass, Hip Hop breaks and interstellar keyboards, the whole experience is dizzying. Before I realise what’s happening, I’m grinning like an idiot. I don’t know where Ernest would fit in the present music scene, they aren’t mainstream, they don’t have a formula, but they do rock, or do I mean funk? I just don’t know. See them I tell you, they’ll blow your mind! Jon Kershaw (confused but happy). - Designer mag.... by Jon Kershaw

Ernest at Dry Bar
Chris Long (gig: 02/08/06)
Ernest’s new single has the cutest puppy on the cover. The image was plastered all over the stage in the basement of Dry Bar, yet one look at the band behind them, and for a moment, it doesn’t seem to make sense. And then they start to play.

Ernest (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)
Ernest (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)

Hiding behind amps, huddled in the darkness, lit only by a string of low-light blue and white bulbs, they are a band that lets their music speak… and what a story it tells.

The reality of Ernest is that they simply refuse to stay in any one genre for more than a half a song. They strap pop to soundscapes and launch the resulting sound off into the ether. They twist rock through funk and watch the mangled fun explode. They put the whole of music through a blender and come out with some of the most exciting, original tunes that you’ll hear all year.
Ernest (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)
Ernest (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)

Time changes and obstreperous anti-solos show off their musicianship without ever dropping into pretension and declare this as music that you can both think to and dance to.

And that’s when the puppy makes sense. Those innocent eyes staring out at you, like the open experiment of Ernest, ready to grow into a dog that licks and bites in equal proportions, a dog unaware of what the future holds, standing for a band that is equally passive and aggressive, and are on the cusp of something amazing.

And if you're feeling brave, just try and pigeon-hole them. Go on, I dare you. In fact, I double dog dare you. - BBC Manchester